Baking Up a Fun-Filled Therapy Session (Yummy Recipes Included!)

Baking is a wonderful opportunity to interact within your school-based therapy or special education session. While creating something delicious, you have ample opportunity to integrate math concepts (ingredient measurements), sequencing (following the steps in the directions), and vocabulary (the Ingredients.) Beforehand, research some of the ingredients to find out their purpose in the recipe (e.g., baking powder)…this makes for another great teaching point!

Another fun exercise: Take pictures of your therapy student at different points of the process, as s/he helps to make the recipe. After you are finished baking, print out the photos and have your student write a sentence underneath each one. Have him/her sequence the pictures, retelling what s/he did in each one, and when done, staple the pages together to create a book your child can share with family members and friends.

Be sure to encourage parents to bake with their children as well, so your students can continue building skills at home!

Speaking of baking…here are a few of MY favorite recipes! Thanks so much to www.schoolfamily.com for sharing these.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Contributed By: Meal Makeover Moms

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

2 tablespoons ground flaxseed or wheat germ

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 tablespoons mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs, beaten

1 1/3 cups 1 percent lowfat milk

1/2 cup canned 100 percent pure pumpkin

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

In a large bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, flaxseed, sugar, chocolate
chips, baking powder, and salt.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, pumpkin, and vanilla until well blended. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

Lightly oil or coat a large nonstick skillet or griddle with nonstick cooking spray and heat over medium-high heat. Pour the batter onto the hot skillet using a 1/4-cup measuring cup, forming 4-inch pancakes.

Cook until bubbles begin to appear on the surface of the pancakes and the bottoms turn golden, about 3 minutes. Flip and cook until the other sides are golden, an additional 2 to 3 minutes. Repeat with the remaining cooking spray and batter.

Whisk together the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, wheat germ, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.

Combine the bananas, eggs, sugar, oil, milk, and vanilla in a medium bowl and stir until well blended. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir until just moistened. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Bake about 20 minutes, or until the muffins are light golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Transfer the pan to a wire rack and cool for 5 minutes. Remove the muffins and cool an additional 5 minutes before serving. To make 24 mini muffins, bake about 14 minutes.